Kimmy in Germany: Burg Ronneburg

As part of my current duties, I was asked by the hubby to look around for fun weekend things to do, so on Friday I discovered a castle where they were going to have a jousting tournament on Saturday. Hubby was definitely on board so we headed over in the morning through some lovely countryside.

Just outside the castle they had tents setup for food, drinks, and medieval jewelry and costumes. While smaller than the Maryland Renaissance Fair ever could be, this one felt more authentic - it was at a castle, after all, but even the costumes were better. By better, I mean that the girls weren't showing as much skin as possible like in Maryland.

And the kids! So many kids wearing adorable medieval outfits, wielding fake swords and having a blast.

Anyway, after we looked around, we got some apfelwein and headed down to the jousting arena. They were some pretty serious mugs that I ended up holding onto the entire time so hubby could get some action shots.

Here's the jousting arena:

And they're off!

As in most tournaments, there were good guys and bad guys. Both sides were really into it, and I'd say the acting was superb. The bad guys especially were revving up the crowd, getting boos for bad behavior, it was lotsa fun.

They had to do several tests before actually going after each other. These included picking up rings as someone held them, then from the ground, then decimating a poor cabbage in half, and nailing a knight cutout to see how many times he spun around.

Before the big fight, they paused the action to allow the children to come onto the field and give ribbons to their favorite knight.

Then things got underway.... spoiler alert - the good guys won!

After it was over and we returned those heavy mugs, we got a bite to eat at a stand - this was SO good! A savory pastry bread with cream and onions, and they had chili powder on the side to kick it up a notch.

We ventured into the center of the castle where there were suits of armor. As we looked around, we realized that they also use this as a wedding venue. While hubby and I did get married at The Cloisters Castle in Maryland, this one was actually sieged upon. Too bad Maryland didn't have this as an option, wow! As we climbed higher, better views...

Really neat inside, too - I loved this armoire.

The kitchen was impressive - nice and big (apparently modern Germans didn't get the message), still with a working fireplace.

Hubby was taking a picture when a small photo-bombing German popped up :-)

We took a climbing break and headed back down.

We were going to watch the falcon show, but we didn't feel like standing around for another 15-20 minutes to wait. Instead we found a peacock!! So pretty.